Most popular baby names for 2020

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Every year, new trends in naming children arise. Sometimes names come and go—the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spawned many copycats in the years post the birth of their children, George, Charlotte and Louis, which are traditional names.

And massive TV shows, such as Game of Thrones, have boosted the popularity of otherwise obscure names. In the US, for example, the name Arya ranked 119th for female names in 2018, jumping from 942nd place in 2010 when the show debuted on TV. The spelling, Aria, made is even more popular in 2018, making it the 19th more common name for new babies.

This year in the UK, the parenting website Nameberry says there are clear signs of new naming trends emerging.

Luna the moon goddess

At the top of the list for girls is the name Luna, which is what the Roman mood goddess was called. (And a character in Harry Potter.) What might also have influenced people in their choice of the name is that the model Chrissy Teigen and her singer husband John Legend chose the name for their daughter.

For boys, Asher is now the most popular name. Last year, Milo topped the list.

And what about newbie names? For girls, Ava, Eloise and Eleanor are in the top ten, replacing Ada, Cora and Amelia from the year before. For boys, new additions are Arlo, Leo and Levi. Archie, the name of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s son, has fallen off the list.

Top ten girls and boys names

The top girls’ names are:

  1. Luna
  2. Aurora
  3. Maeve
  4. Olivia
  5. Isla
  6. Ava
  7. Charlotte
  8. Ophelia
  9. Eloise
  10. Eleanor

And the top boys:

  1. Asher
  2. Milo
  3. Oliver
  4. Levi
  5. Silas
  6. Atticus
  7. Theodore
  8. Jasper
  9. Leo
  10. Arlo

Reporting on 2020’s popular names, the Daily Mirror also linked to an article about ‘the worst’ baby names as decided by Mumsnet. Ironically, Luna—top 10 girls choice this year—was one of them.

In the top spot, was Mia because mums felt its meaning, ‘missing in action’ made it silly. Another contender was Lana thanks to the word it spells if you do it backwards. Fanny was number three “for obvious reasons”. Flora was another as one mum said it made her think of bacteria and others did not like Graham as it sounded too much like “grey ham”.

Alexa was on the list because it’s the name of Amazon’s virtual assistant and Luna was disliked because people felt it was a pet’s name.


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